...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 7-3: Zeke Gets It

Jen tapped her PDA and asked it if Zeke was available. Shortly he appeared on the little screen and said, "What's up, Jen?"

"Hi Zeke. There's something I want to talk with you about. It's, um, related to my research on microcurrents and the Q. Could I come see you? Say, sometime tomorrow?" Jen knew Zeke wouldn't mind if she walked in on him right then, but she wanted some time for herself to digest what she'd just learned.

Zeke said, "Sure, any time, Jen. Want to give me more of a hint?"

"Uh, it's a new development. I'd rather get my thoughts more in order before I see you."

"Okay, that's fine. I must say I'm intrigued."

Sedna gave Jen a little poke and a head bob. Jen nodded and said, "Oh, and Sedna might be tagging along. Okay?"

"Certainly. Now I'm even more intrigued. Better make it early if you can."

"In the morning then. Thanks, Zeke." She saw him nod and tapped the screen to break the link.

Zeke's office looked reasonably well organized, a sure sign that he was an executive and couldn't afford to let things pile up randomly like a lone researcher might. When Jen and Sedna entered he got up from behind his desk and joined them off to one side in a less formal and more comfortable seating arrangement. In deference to Sedna, he skipped the customary offer of tea or coffee.

"Okay, Jen, what's on your mind?"

"You recall how Rosita helped me show that when a microcurrent changes, local life forms that are affected by it find resonances with the new conditions through the Q and shift into related forms that are better suited?"

Zeke nodded.

"Well, Bear and Sedna got me thinking about this more broadly."

"How so?"

"You recall those peculiar sea lions that seemed to follow you around when you were out with Sedna?"

"Of course."

"What if something similar was going on with them?" Jen knew she was beating about the bush. She was hesitant to come right out and say it. She was trying to approach it gradually, like Bear had with her. She needn't have worried.

"You mean, the sea lions could have been Ryan and Rosita. I've thought of that too. Enough of our people have suggested they might be doing that. It would be hard not to have the thought. But those rumors were based only on them being shamans, and stories of shamans dreaming they are various animals. Your research, now, that lends a little more credence to the idea. Have you asked them?"

Zeke was looking at Jen, but he glanced at Sedna and she noticed that his eyes were twinkling. Sedna had been in monitor mode, with most of her attention on what she was doing back at WBI. That changed.

Jen said, "Huh?"

"Have you asked Ryan and Rosita if they shift into sea lions?"

"Um, not directly. But Bear and Xayna told me they do."

"Do Bear and Xayna do it too?"

"Um, yes. At least they said so."

"And you believe them?"

"Yes." Jen was getting braver. "They made it very hard not to."

"Have you seen them do it?"

"No. That's why we came to you."

Zeke leaned back in his chair. He looked back and forth between Jen and Sedna. "I think I see why. In most places, for most people, such a thing would be hard to believe. But you can believe it, because you have experienced things that make it easier for you.

"Here in Mexico, where I grew up, such beliefs are common. They are a blending of Latino and Indio, each with its own ideas, but these ideas support each other, and result in a strong belief in something ineffable, something that can't be described in words."

Sedna felt an urge to keep it light. "Ineffable. That concept doesn't bother most people much. They mostly describe such things as 'effing' and let it go at that."

Zeke chuckled, and went on. "We only care about what we care about. We relate to what we relate to. All else is noise to be ignored. What's important here is that what we care about as individuals resonates with all of us, and our awareness of it expands.

"Now we have the Q connection, which makes seemingly isolated sources available to us. But having been given this connection through the computer magic of QAR, we begin to realize that we've had it all along. And treated it as noise."